Recently, with the growing penetration of wireless communication devices such as a multi-function mobile phone, various application programs have been developed. In such wireless communication devices, functions used for wireless technologies including a wireless local area network (WLAN, and also referred to as a wireless LAN) and Bluetooth (trademark) are provided. Therefore, development of application programs using such wireless technologies has been also become popular, and it is expected that services using wireless technologies will increasingly spread in the future.
An example of a system using the wireless technology, a wireless communication system described below is known that includes a base station of a wireless LAN and a plurality of terminals that communicate with each other through the base station. In such a wireless communication system, each of the terminals includes a communication section that performs terminal-to-terminal direct communication with another terminal without the base station, using a second wireless channel different from a first wireless channel used for wireless communication with the base station (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-295541).
In addition, an example is known in which a station starts communication from an infrastructure mode, searches for packets transmitted and received within an infrastructure network, and intercepts a packet destined for an access point of the station that is the last stop. At this time, it is determined that communication with a communication partner using the same ad-hoc network is allowed to be performed, and the access point causes a CH search section to search for a channel for the ad-hoc. In a switching control section, a single channel is notified to a target access point, and the station and the communication partner are caused to communicate with each other directly through the channel of the ad-hoc network (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-128785).
Standards are defined in wireless LANs. A standard specification is defined in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) mode in which a wireless communication device performs direct communication with a wireless communication device of a communication partner without a base station in a wireless LAN. An application example using a technology is also known in which a wireless communication device performs P2P mode communication with a wireless communication device of the communication partner other than the base station while performing Station (STA) mode communication with the base station (for example, see IEEE Standard for Information technology—802.11n, 2009; Wi-Fi Peer-to-peer (P2P) Technical Specification version 1.4 Wi-Fi Alliance, 2014; and Wi-Fi Display Technical Specification Version 1.0.0. Wi-Fi Alliance, 2012).
However, for example, when a single wireless communication device performs wireless communication with a base station using a first wireless channel and direct communication with another wireless communication device using a second wireless channel different from the first wireless channel, the following problem occurs. That is, when the wireless communication device performs switching between the wireless communication using the first wireless channel and the wireless communication using the second wireless channel, a time occurs during which the communication is not performed. Specifically, a time loss caused by the switching of wireless channels occurs, so that the efficiency of transmission and reception of data in the communication is reduced.